30.3.17

Man mauled to death by dog during interview with BBC

Staffordshire bull terrier attacked its 41-year-old owner during filming of documentary at his home in north London

A man has died after being savaged by his dog while being interviewed by a BBC documentary film crew in north London.

The man, named locally as Mario Perivoitos, 41, was with the film crew at his home in Wood Green on 20 March when his Staffordshire bull terrier attacked, biting him in the neck.

The crew called an ambulance shortly before 10.30pm and the man was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead two hours later, the Metropolitan police confirmed.

The crew has not been identified and the BBC declined to say what the documentary was about. The police said it was “entirely unrelated to the Met’s BBC documentary”. Police had attended the address previously.

The reporters, a man in his 20s and a woman in her 30s, were interviewed under caution at a London police station earlier this week, the police said.

Neighbours in the block said Perivoitos was believed to have lived in the building for more than 20 years. Geoff Morgan, 52, who was home at the time, heard a commotion coming from a flat below him. He said: “I heard shouting – ‘Get him off! Get him off me!’

“He was shouting really loudly. He was bleeding from his neck. There was a lot of blood.”

The dog was seized and is in secure kennels. Staffordshire bull terriers are not a banned breed under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

A postmortem carried out last Friday in Haringey gave the cause of death as hypovolemic shock – a condition caused by massive blood loss – and damage to the airway consistent with a dog bite.

The BBC said: “A crew making a BBC documentary were present – but not filming – at the time of the incident and called an ambulance. Given the ongoing inquiries, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”

The Met said: “A film crew making a documentary were present during the incident and called the London ambulance service. They are assisting police with their inquiries as officers prepare a report for the coroner.”

Perivoitos’s death is not being treated as suspicious, and his next of kin have been informed.